Natural stone is one of the most suggestive materials found in nature. Or, to be more specific, natural stone has a huge potential of expressivity. And this quality is best perceived from the way buildings look all over the world and how plastic art extracted from stone an infinity of expressions: from emotions to senses, from tragedy to comedy, from practical to abstract.

Natural stone is not just a simple material and maybe this is the biggest mistake when speaking of it. Artists were always aware that such a material “hides” a huge capacity for communicating sentiments and ideas. These days, art is searching new ways for conveying messages. Hirotoshi Ito is one of those artists, admired all over the world because of his unique way of communicating with his creations.

For the first time in Romania, his amazing artworks can be admired at Galateca Art Gallery, between 10th and 14th of October 2017, part of the exhibition “Pleasures of Paradox. The fine stone”. Admission free.

First, Hirotoshi Ito manages, in the good and old tradition of sculptors, to shape this material in something that does not look like natural stone. We notice his creations are impressive by flexibility, warmth, conformity, features derived from a raw material which is by definition, hard, rough, cold and wild. In this way, the stone of his artworks does not loses its acknowledged features, but reveals others unexpected features. From here, the combination of contrasting attributes yet fully functional together, the paradox of Hirotoshi Ito work is born.

With the same power of impact, such natural stone objects reveal a lot of humor combined with a dose of intelligent and absurd. Accents are sometimes subtle and sometimes message is expressed disarmingly simple, yet equally amazing.

Hirotoshi Ito is the fifth generation of an old family of stonemasons. His father often told him that stonemasons have to work not only on grave stones, because they need something else for developing new skills and broadening the perspective on natural stone. Maybe this was the turning point, the moment when the artist started to perceive natural stone differently.
Although he was supposed to take over the family business, he goes to attend the classes of Tokyo University of the Arts, “Metal” division. Working with iron will develop his creativity, but he prefers to stay with the stone. His effort combined with passion results in discovering a unique style, a mix of care, concept and emotion. Close to surrealism, Hirotoshi Ito is also a fine narrator, with miniatures that enchanted the visitors.

With 10 years of experience on the market for interior and exterior decoration projects, PIATRAONLINE was proud to celebrate 2 things with this Hirotoshi Ito exhibition: the talent of an amazing artist and the inexhaustible show of natural stone.

Mariana Constantinescu Bradescu, Managing Partner PIATRAONLINE: We are fully committed to the brave projects we are endorsing with a desire to place Romania on the map with leaders of design and architecture. For us, every piece of natural stone is a work of art sculpted by nature: unique, suggestive, concerning. Hence, the admiration for Hirotoshi Ito artwork, a source of inspiration for us and the desire to present his comic-absurd universe at home, in Romania.

Your home is a personal retreat – a place where we can be ourselves and forget about everything. That’s why decorating such a space will not be as easy as it may seem. More difficult than choosing a living room sofa or your favorite bathroom material, there is something more that complicates our choices.

We have declared our fascination for natural stone anytime we had an opportunity and is exactly such passion that opened up fresh horizons and outlooks. Such a natural and simple material showed us once more that essential things are hidden in details – people and places.

Design has a way of influencing people's lives and daily behavior by revealing emotions and altering the mood. And designers are the ones responsible for our basic objects. They have a unique ability to see the world, a detail that eludes us and even perceive things that do not exist yet. As a result, you get things beyond our boundaries and imagination and if they really understand nature, you will enjoy genuine works of art.

Romania is still far from being a country where you can constantly identify daring architectural projects and unique interior design. The interior design market is hardly evolving and not because of the designers, but due to customers, usually guided by prejudices and obsolete ideas from the last century. On this blog we have attempted and will always try to present examples of interior and exterior designs that are popular all over the world. We are happy whenever the PIATRAONLINE customers ask questions about a specific type of natural stone for a decoration project in their homes or their office, just like the ones they noticed in a post on our website. In this article, we have four new examples that can be inspirational for projects that will not look like they were made in the mid-20th century.

Celebrated in 2017, the 10 years of activity for PIATRAONLINE in Romania, went beyond brand acknowledgment, because it also transformed people’s perception on natural stone. Last year, PIATRAONLINE launched the first natural stone pavilion in Romania and the largest of its kind in Eastern Europe, a unique concept that complemented wonderfully our two-floor showroom.

Nature, with its many forms, was always a source of inspiration for architects, regardless of time period. Vegetal or mineral structures were the model of many buildings around the world. The world's architecture becomes spectacular once more with the planned opening of the Qatar National Museum building in Doha, at the end of this year. The model for this impressive architectural creation is the Desert Rose. The Desert Rose is a strange, semiprecious stone, resulting from combining crystals clusters of gypsum or barite with sand grains.

People who appreciate a fine drink know that temperature is an extremely important factor in preserving the flavor. If the red wine has to be served at room temperature and the white wine enjoyed cold when it comes to spirits, the options are very different: at room temperature, cold, with or without ice, with or without lemon etc.

We already written here about the domains where natural stone has been strong lately. We are talking about clothing, footwear, clothing accessories, cars, electronics ... Furniture cladding with natural stone is not that new, but we have to mention it here, because furniture designers are increasingly focusing in this direction. In this article we will present some models of watches that have incorporated the natural stone into their structure. Marble and granite are the materials that dominate here, as is the case with car accessories. Slate and onyx are recovering and probably will remain the favorites of the luxury area of the horology for many years to come.

Definitely, Peach Travertine deserves a spot on the podium of the fabulous natural stones. With a vibrating color variation, peach shades and yellow, orange cream or light burgundy this natural stone cannot remain unnoticed. Only the Peach travertine has this color variation that conveys both energy and relaxation, tranquility and dynamism. The feelings transmitted by this natural stone convert Peach Travertine into a product that can be used in any type of space. PIATRAONLINE is the only company trading Peach Travertine in Romania and Europe, having the largest volume of exports in countries such as Germany, Austria, Belgium and France.